Ronda Rousey once again has the attention of the MMA world in 2025 with rumors of a potential comeback and longtime fan – and UFC bantamweight – Luana Santos would absolutely love to see \u201cRowdy\u201d enter the octagon one last time.<\/p>\n
Ready to compete on the final UFC card of the year Saturday when she battles Canada\u2019s Melissa Croden at UFC Vegas 112, Santos looked back at one of the most emotional days of her life when she met Rousey at the Syndicate MMA gym in Las Vegas this past July.<\/p>\n
UFC bantamweight contender Jacqueline Cavalcanti was invited by Rousey to a sparring session at the gym and asked Santos if she wanted to tag along and possibly meet the UFC star in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Jacque, for the love of God, I need to be there, I need to watch, I need to see her, I need a picture with her. It\u2019s an opportunity I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll get again,\u2019\u201d Santos told MMA Fighting. \u201cI was shaking, literally shaking. I kept thinking, I don\u2019t speak English very well, I get by with the basics, but that\u2019s it. I kept rehearsing what I wanted to say to her, but when the time came I couldn\u2019t say anything, I just said, \u2018I love you.\u2019 That\u2019s the only thing I managed to say. Guys, I was shaking. I\u2019m not the type of person who says, \u2018Oh my God, I\u2019m such a fan.\u2019 There are very few people of who I\u2019d say, \u2018Wow, I\u2019m really a fan,\u2019 and Ronda is one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so happy to see her coming back, to see her training again, sparring with Jacque, seeing her up close, where she trains, her coaches,\u201d she continued. \u201cI was very, very happy. I even have a framed picture in my living room that I got as a gift, and it\u2019s staying there. I felt so fulfilled. I was already watching her when I started MMA, inspired by her. I would say, \u2018I want to be famous, I want to do what she did, I want to do movies, I want to win the belt, I want this, I want that.\u2019 She inspired me a lot in the beginning, so I was very happy when I met her.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s still unclear if Rousey will fight again. Even though Santos sees no need for her to put gloves back on, she would understand Rousey\u2019s intention in coming back years after leaving the UFC with back-to-back knockout losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes after a historically successful MMA career. If that\u2019s the case, Santos suggests a farewell bout with longtime rival Miesha Tate.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a fan, I would absolutely love to see her fight again,\u201d Santos said. \u201cAs a fan, yes. As an athlete, I think it\u2019s more about putting a final period at the end of her career in a positive way because she left MMA with two crucial losses, getting knocked out. It doesn\u2019t erase\u2014people say, \u2018Oh, she left a loser.\u2019 It doesn\u2019t erase everything she did. She will always be the best to me. We have to appreciate everything she did for women\u2019s MMA. But I think it\u2019s a matter of honor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if she comes back, it will be purely for honor. \u2018I\u2019ve finished this cycle, I\u2019ve closed it.\u2019 Put the gloves down in the octagon and be like, \u2018I\u2019m retiring for real, that\u2019s it, you won\u2019t see me again.\u2019 Because the way she left, the way she stopped, it was sad. Two losses, getting knocked out. She said she stopped because of concussion issues, anyway\u2026 So I think it would be a matter of honor for her to return.\u201d<\/p>\n
Santos\u2019 upcoming fight is at bantamweight, a division where she\u2019s unbeaten so far in the UFC, and she\u2019s just glad to enter the octagon again after a cancelled bout in November. Santos saw her original opponent Darya Zheleznyakova pull out and then replacement Melissa Croden also withdrew, postponing their match to Dec. 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was training for Darya, who wouldn\u2019t throw a single kick in a fight. Then it switched to Melissa, who kicks the whole fight,\u201d Santos said. \u201cIt changed, you adjust, but I was able to adapt my game well. Melissa is a very strong girl, a tough girl. It\u2019s not an easy fight, just like none of them are. If you\u2019re in the UFC, you\u2019re not an easy fight. But my game is very well-adjusted and I believe a lot in the power of my hands. Everyone I train with always says I hit really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Croden has never been finished in MMA, losing a pair of decisions in nine pro bouts, but the Brazilian judoka says there\u2019s a first time for everything in life.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy ground game is well-suited for MMA, it\u2019s not that berimbolo or pure jiu-jitsu stuff,\u201d Santos said. \u201cI adapted my judo well for MMA so Melissa, everything will have its first time [laughs]. I\u2019m going in there to fight three rounds. If we win by submission, by knockout, damn, that\u2019s great, but I\u2019m going in ready for three rounds. I know it\u2019s going to be a tough fight, but everything in life has a first time. Maybe this will be Melissa\u2019s first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI also have great chances of finishing the fight on the feet,\u201d she continued . \u201cMy striking matches well with hers. I have heavy hands, I believe in my hands. Obviously, I like grappling and I always look for grappling because of my judo, but it\u2019s not my only weapon. I\u2019ve been training my striking a lot and sharpening it to be a more complete fighter and take away that idea people have that I always enter just to submit. I\u2019m not going in with that mentality, especially because she\u2019s tough and I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll take her down that easily. But yes, I believe I also have great chances of finishing the fight standing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ronda Rousey once again has the attention of the MMA world in 2025 with rumors of a potential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-342970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}